Bodyguard Duty
“And some people call me Dog-Beating Dragon.”
Under Heaven, no more barking dogs.
I gave the end of my staff a hard shake, and thick clots of blood spattered across the ground.
The Mujeong-something gang lay out cold, eyes rolled back from the shock of their dantians being shattered. I’d thought the same thing back during the Beomcheon Eumjeok incident—half-baked punks always give themselves the sloppiest nicknames.
“……Wow.”
The veiled beauty let out a soft gasp of pure admiration, lips forming a perfect O after watching me drop three vicious First-class martial artists in a single breath.
“Hand it over.”
I thrust my open palm toward her, demanding payment.
She tilted her head, looking puzzled.
“You have to give me what you promised.”
“What…… Ah!”
Only then did she remember the deal. She pulled a tightly rolled cloth from her bosom. With a flutter it unfurled, revealing a small piece of sugar candy and a few honey cakes no thicker than a pinky finger.
Carrying those around hidden like contraband… I’d heard she was a courtesan, but she had a bigger sweet tooth than her looks suggested.
“They don’t let us eat at the house. If you want to become a famous courtesan like one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, body management is essential……”
She mumbled the excuse without me even asking, clearly reading the look in my eyes. High-class courtesans really were the celebrities of their era—singing, reciting poetry, painting pictures, the whole package.
“These honey cakes are pretty good. When I get back I should ask noona to make some.”
For taking down three First-class fighters the reward was almost laughably humble, but the Seongun Simbeop would make up the difference in merit. No matter what, I never took a loss.
“Boss, is it tasty?”
While I was smacking away at the honey cake, Ilhong stared at me from the side like she was asking if I planned to keep the whole thing to myself.
“Here. Catch.”
The portion had been bird-seed small to begin with, so I just held out the half-eaten piece.
Ilhong’s eyes wavered in mild panic.
“E-eating something someone else already bit into is unseemly……”
“Then don’t.”
“I never said I wouldn’t eat it.”
She snatched it with sudden boldness, hesitated for a second, then popped it into her mouth and chewed with her head ducked low. Back in our beggar days we’d shared thin gruel from the same pot without blinking. Why the sudden bashfulness?
“You two are really close……”
The veiled woman watched us with open curiosity, as if we looked intimate enough to split a single bean between us. Hopefully she wasn’t getting any weird ideas.
“But are you truly all right with a reward like this?”
Even she seemed to feel a prick of conscience after watching First-class martial artists get flattened.
“If your conscience bothers you, feel free to add more.”
“Ah—right now this is all I have on me.”
She promised she’d make it up with all sorts of extras once we reached the courtesan house. Since she worked in one, she probably knew the exact location of the place I was heading to.
“Miss Courtesan, do you know Cheonhwaru?”
“Huh? Yes, yes, I know it.”
She answered with a faint note of surprise.
“The exact location too?”
“Of course…… I’m a courtesan of that very Cheonhwaru.”
So she worked at the place itself. That explained why those bastards had jumped her in broad daylight. Just as Madam Eun Hwaran had said, the dirty tricks from rival houses were running wild.
“Then let’s go clock in together.”
My tone made it sound like I was heading there for a shift of my own. The courtesan’s eyes went round.
Arriving at Cheonhwaru with the veiled woman, we found the house looking like it had just entered a state of war. Word that one of their own was being kidnapped had sent every house guard and hired vagabond pouring out into the street with swords at their hips.
“……Ju Wolay! Wolay!”
A middle-aged woman in elegant silk spotted the veiled figure and sprinted forward, silk robes streaming behind her. She crushed Ju Wolay in a desperate embrace, babbling how lucky they were.
“Heavens, the sky itself must have helped us! I thought we were already too late…… Even knowing I’d lose everything, I was ready to storm Honghwaru if you never came back.”
Judging by her words, every last fighter here had gathered just to rescue this one woman. She had to be a rising star of serious value inside the house.
“Ah, I remember. When Madam Eun Hwaran mentioned Beijing’s Four Flowers, didn’t she say something about a Wolay?”
Ilhong had dredged up the name Eun Hwaran had tossed out in passing.
“Right—the one who sits at number one in house revenue? The girl who made every high-ranking gentleman in the city scramble just to see her face once?”
So the hot new talent of Cheonhwaru was this veiled woman?
“No wonder the looks are that good.”
Even the brief glimpse I’d caught through the veil earlier had been enough to make the great Dan Mujin of this world feel a little flutter. If I reacted like that, ordinary men would simply drop dead on the spot. Add flawless poetry, calligraphy, painting, song and dance on top of that beauty, and of course rival houses would panic at the thought of losing their biggest spenders. Especially the current industry leader—they’d feel the hit hardest of all.
Honghwaru, though… that name had come up somewhere before.
“Madam Okryeong, I was so scared……”
“There, there, my child. How terrified this little one must have been.”
The two women were still locked in a tight embrace. Master and cherished disciple—clearly their bond ran deep.
“But what really happened? I distinctly heard you were surrounded by those evil-faction thugs……”
“Over there—those young heroes saved me.”
Ju Wolay pointed straight at me. Every gaze in the vicinity snapped onto us at once.
“So young…… No—young heroes?”
Fair enough. My face still didn’t scream “master.” Give it time, though; the reputation would catch up.
“I am truly grateful, nameless young heroes. Wolay and I both owe you a great debt. May I ask your names?”
Proprietress Okryeong bowed deeply on behalf of the entire house.
“I’m a guy called Dan Mujin. This one’s Ilhong.”
The moment the name left my mouth the proprietress clapped her hands lightly, as if something had clicked.
“Dan Mujin…… Could you be the Dog-Beating Dragon who distinguished himself in the Dragon-Phoenix Blood Incident?”
“Oh? So my exploits have reached Beijing already?”
The nickname born in Shaanxi had finally washed up on these shores. Took long enough.
“Of course! I heard you seized the Blood Cult’s thunder bombs and rendered an enormous service.”
“……”
I’d run myself ragged putting on a full-course performance, yet somehow the whole thing had been reduced to “that one big thunder bomb.” This is exactly why people say the first button and the first nickname matter so much. Once something like “Luck Seven, Skill Three” sticks, everything you do starts looking like pure coincidence.
“In any case, thank you again. It must have been no concern of yours as a young hero, yet you still stepped in.”
Proprietress Okryeong clearly saw me as some righteous xia who had jumped in out of pure chivalry. Not entirely wrong—at first I hadn’t known who Ju Wolay was.
“Don’t mention it. I came here to help from the start.”
“……?”
Okryeong tilted her head, puzzled.
“Madam Eun Hwaran sent us.”
“Madam Eun Hwaran……? Ah! The masters she said she would dispatch as bodyguards—could it be……!”
“Yes. That would be us.”
One Peak Realm expert plus one Second-class fighter skilled in gathering information. For the record, the latter was already knocking on the door of First-class thanks to Hwang Geolgae’s systematic training. Something about her five senses being wide open.
“The masters Madam Eun Hwaran sent?”
“But they’re still so green……”
Whispers rippled through the house staff. The courtesans especially eyed us with open doubt.
“They’re the real thing. I watched them drop three First-class fighters in the blink of an eye.”
Ju Wolay delivered her testimony like a courtroom witness. The certainty on her face finally dissolved the remaining skepticism, and admiring murmurs rose in its place.
“My, to reach such a realm so young……”
“What talent. How on earth did the Madam get her hands on people like them?”
Proprietress Okryeong strode forward and seized both of my hands as if she had just been handed a life raft.
“Young heroes, it’s like gaining a thousand troops and ten thousand horses. Bodyguard duty—please take good care of us.”
She too had been wavering until Ju Wolay’s account settled the matter for good.
“Yes, don’t worry. As long as I’m here, those evil-faction dogs won’t dare act up.”
Any riffraff who showed their faces would get the Dog-Beating Staff treatment on arrival. I thumped my chest with a solid tung-tung and let the confidence show.
And so began our bodyguard stint at Cheonhwaru.
The rival house and the evil-faction forces that had been causing all the trouble must have taken the earlier thrashing to heart, because for several weeks they stayed perfectly quiet—just as I had boasted. With the bullying and extortion gone, Cheonhwaru finally tasted peace again.
In its place, the inside of the house grew a little noisier. Two young, good-looking men suddenly appearing in a space thick with perfume was bound to cause a stir.
“Those young heroes took down the Mujeong Three Fiends?”
“One of them even received a nickname straight from the Murim Alliance Leader.”
Marriageable-age women kept stealing curious glances whenever we walked past. We had clearly become the hottest gossip among the courtesans.
Yet even among us, one person monopolized a solid eighty percent of every conversation.
“Is that Young Master Ilhong? Oh my, just as the rumors said—he’s so handsome……”
“Look at that jawline like polished half-jade. How can anyone be that fine……”
“Ah, that must be what they mean by ‘beauty like Song Yu.’”
“If he keeps growing upright for a few more years, a beautiful man who’ll take all of Beijing by storm might be born.”
Every time we passed, delicate sighs floated toward Ilhong. After weeks of listening to that soundtrack, my mood started to sour.
“Hey. Why am I ‘young hero’ and you’re ‘Young Master’?”
“How should I know? Don’t ask me.”
I was decent-looking enough myself, but standing next to a rising sun left me stuck in permanent shade. Not that I was some idiot who forgot the difference between work and play and went fishing for attention. Still—this was a little too blatant. It was a matter of pride.
“This won’t do. Walk a few steps away from me.”
“What? Why……?”
Ilhong looked at me like I’d lost my mind. Ever since we arrived she’d been circling me like she had exclusive marking rights.
“Hmph. I refuse. Why should I?”
She shook her head hard, making it clear she intended to stay glued no matter what anyone said. So I spent the entire day walking the escort routes with this leech attached to my side.
“Young hero, the kitchen made something delicious, so I packed a little lunchbox for you.”
A welcome visitor found me. The young woman who always appeared with a neatly packed meal the moment hunger started to set in.
“Tsk.”
None other than the pillar of Cheonhwaru herself—Ju Wolay, the woman I had once saved for a single piece of sugar candy.
“Oh, thank you as always. Hey, Ilhong—have a bite too.”
“I’m fine.”
And every time she showed up, Ilhong’s mood turned prickly. We’d been seeing each other for over a month already; was it so hard to get along?
Clatter.
The lid opened to reveal food that looked freshly cooked, modest yet filling, giving off a gentle aroma. Just looking at the tightly packed little feast already made my stomach feel full.
“Please eat, young hero. Ah—open wide.”
So this was what she had meant by “I’ll get you more things once we’re at the house.” A luxury meal service I had never once experienced in my life.
“Aaaah~”
In a way it was rightful compensation, so there was no reason to refuse. I opened my mouth like a baby bird and accepted every bite she offered. Ilhong stared at the whole performance with an intensity that was hard to ignore.
Once the short meal ended and Ju Wolay discreetly excused herself, Ilhong finally spoke.
“You’re enjoying that way too much, aren’t you?”
“Hey, when else am I going to get pampered like this?”
I shrugged. There were men out there who spent gold like water just for a single glimpse of Ju Wolay’s face. Instead of sulking she could have just taken a bite when I offered.
“Just so you know, Boss—don’t fall for it and start throwing money around like the regular clients.”
My happy munching had clearly sparked worry.
“I’m not falling. I need to save up and open the office.”
The hunger for my own detective agency still burned hotter than anything else. Madam Eun Hwaran had only asked us to hold the fort for about two months. One more month and we should be free.
“I hope that last month just slides by without a single incident.”
Same pay for less work—always the better deal. I stretched out on the main-hall veranda where the sky was visible and offered up a quiet prayer for peace and quiet.
“Young Hero Mujin—! Big trouble! Come quickly!”
Heaven, it seemed, had no intention of leaving me alone.